Sunday, November 17, 2013

What is school for? #savmp

I'm a big 'seed planter' with new ideas or paths to follow and then seeing where staff takes those seeds and how they grow!

Last year I shared an article about making positive phone calls home before a staff meeting, that was it, I emailed the article, mentioned it in our staff meeting and nothing else. Two weeks ago, I gave every teacher an index card and had them write a students name that could really benefit from a positive phone call home. Then I collected those cards and went directly to my office and I called those twenty-two parents with the positive news. Administrators, if you don't or haven't done this, the dividends that will be paid back to you, your staff and those children are immense!

The Common Core really calls for writing across ALL content areas. I remember a random seed about this and how about writing in PE and music, blam, see the photo below. 5th grade 1:1 with laptops in Music Specialist, writing from their Google Drive about melodies and tongue twisters, yes....writing in Music!

This would be a great writing activity or Google Form with teachers before a staff meeting and then share the results, looking ahead to our December meeting and a fun/meaningful activity.